ABSTRACT: Web-based businesses are increasingly the subject of antitrust
concerns. Plaintiffs in the United States have sued eBay for tying its
online payments service to its transaction service. Multiple
jurisdictions in the European Community have claimed that Apple has
violated the competition laws by limiting the ability of its music
player to play music from competing music stores and limiting the
ability of competing music players to play music purchased from its
music stores. During 2007, although the U.S. Federal Trade Commission
decided not to block Google's acquisition of DoubleClick after a
lengthy investigation, it expressed its intent to "closely watch these
markets" involved in online advertising. The web economy poses two
major challenges to competition authorities. The law and economics for
analyzing the multi-sided platforms that dominate the internet sector
is not well developed. At the same time the web-economy is evolving
very rapidly and in ways that are sure to result in antitrust
complaints and investigations. Competition authorities and courts will
need to exercise great care in balancing the protection of consumers
from anticompetitive behavior against causing harm from interfering in
complex businesses that are both rapidly moving and not fully
understood.